How to Install a VLC Player in Ubuntu

VLC is VideoLAN's free cross-platform media player that supports DVDs, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, DivX, MOV, QuickTime, MP3s and various streaming protocols like ShoutCAST TV. Additional plugins can also be installed through Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager to expand VLC's functionality, including a web browser plugin for Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ubuntu administrator password

1. Click on the main Ubuntu menu. Move your cursor over "System," then "Administration" and click "Synaptic Package Manager."

2. Enter your administrator password when prompted. Then click "Search" in the Synaptic toolbar. Type "vlc" in the dialog box that opens, then click the "Search" button.

3. 
   Installing VLC in Synaptic

   Check the box next to "vlc" and "mozilla-plugin-vlc" in the results page. Click "Mark for Installation" in the pop-up dialog window. Click the "Mark" button when prompted.

4. Click "Apply" in the Synaptic toolbar. Then click the "Apply" button at the bottom of the "Apply the following changes?" window. This will install VLC, the VLC Mozilla browser plugin and any other required dependencies. Close Synaptic.

5. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 to install additional VLC plugins. For example, if your Ubuntu version uses PulseAudio, you may want to install "vlc-plugin-pulse." Also, there's a "vlc-plugin-esd" for Esound audio applications.

6. Click on the main Ubuntu menu. Move your cursor over "Sound & Video," then click "VLC media player" to run VLC.

7. 
   The VLC Preferences window

   Click "Tools" and then "Preferences" in the VLC toolbar to customize VLC's basic settings for DVD playback, OSD settings and disc device locations, for example.

Resources

• Ubuntu Documentation